# Shift from Value to Values In his book, [[Reference Notes/This Could Be Our Future|This Could Be Our Future]], Yancey Strickler (co-founder of Kickstarter), identifies the main problem of our age: the elevation of financial maximization as the dominant value to rule all other values. When we talk about the "value" of something, it is often in monetary terms. However, when we talk about "values", we are referring to the full spectrum of all the things that we care about. The tragedy of our generation is that "value" has come to eclipse "values". So the first thing we need to do is put financial "value" back into its rightful place, as only one amongst a pluralism of values. Strickler uses the image of the Bento box to put things into perspective. A Japanese Bento lunchbox is divided into compartments, to ensure a moderate and balanced meal. Similarly, Strickler's Bento is divided into 4 quadrants, to represent different values, related to different aspects of our self-interest: Now-Me, Now-Us, Future-Me, Future-Us. **Now-Me** is where we are currently stuck, in the realm of self-interest that is narrowly defined as financial maximization. **Now-Us** extends our range of values to include what would be good for our communities and the people we love. It is where fairness enters into the picture. **Future-Me** includes the values that our future selves would want to embody. It incorporates growth and grit. **Future-Us** is what we envision would be good for our communities in the future. It is the province of holistic awareness and sustainability. A Bento box can be drawn up for an individual, as well as an organisation. For example, a Bento for Imaginal Seeds could look something like this: ![[ISM Bento.excalidraw]] While we are not attached to the idea of a Bento box, we think it is a useful and simple tool to get people to think about the shift from "value" to "values". Unfortunately, the vast concentrations of wealth and power that we see in the world is tied up with the "Now Me" perspective. There is nothing wrong with this perspective, and it is still valuable, indeed necessary, for our survival. However, because it keeps sucking in more and more wealth and power in a self-reinforcing feedback loop, it has eclipsed all the other perspectives. Unless we find ways of challenging this power structure, it will be impossible to break out of this prison and explore the full range of other values. That is why we can't just talk about values. We have to talk about power. ([[NVC and Sociocracy as practices that re-distribute power]]) # Timescale of Change Strickler believes that it takes about 30 years to produce the kind of radical shift in thinking that he is calling for. He uses the analogy of a party that keeps going, with new party-goers arriving and old ones leaving as time passes. The music doesn't change until all the old party-goers leave, and a new vibe takes over. Or as Max Plank observed of science: "Science progresses one funeral at a time." Financial maximization happens to be the music that was playing when the current generation was born. But as a new generation takes over, more and more people are becoming tired of the music. It may seem dominant right now, but we forget that things weren't always like this. It only became dominant after neo-liberal ideas were introduced in the 1970s. Change doesn't happen automatically, however. It must be fought for incrementally over time. Imaginal Seeds is about sensing the deep currents of change, and playing our incremental part in creating the future we want to live in. # Agents of Change There is another theory of change we are fond of, which is Berkana Institute's Two Loops Theory (https://www.systemsinnovation.io/post/two-loop-model). It is similar to Strickler's idea, in that it describes the pattern of old systems falling as new systems rise. It goes into further detail about the roles that we all get to play in this grand drama. ![[Two Loops - roles.png]] There are **Pioneers** of the new system, the ones that bravely chart new territory. There are **Connectors**, those who strengthen the relationships within the new system, so that it can be strong enough to resist the attacks of the old system. There are **Illuminators**, those who tell stories that help people cross over from the old system to the new. This is the power of naming and describing. There are **Protectors**, those who have a secure position within the old system, but who use this to extend a protective shelter over the fragile buds of the new system. There are those who provide **Hospice**, who work to improve things within the old system, who delay the inevitable for those who do not have the means or desire to cross over to the new system. Imaginal Seeds recognizes the value of all these roles. Knowing about them allows us to be more strategic with our intentions. A lot of energy is wasted when we try to play roles that are not suited for us. When we play a role that fits us, things become easier, and we can relax knowing what is ours to do, and what we can safely leave to others. ![[Two Loops - 4 stages.png]] Systems change is a complex choreography involving multiple actors. Berkana Institute has usefully described 4 important steps in nurturing a new system: **Name** - Pioneering leaders act in isolation, unaware that their work has broader value. They are too busy to think about extending their work, and too humble to think that others would benefit. The first act is to recognize them as pioneers with experiences that are of value to others. **Connect** - Life grows and changes through the strength of its connections and relationships. (In nature, if a system lacks health, the solution is to connect it to more of itself, until vastly more synchronicity begins to happen.) We can create connections in many different ways: design and facilitate community gatherings, host networks where people can exchange ideas and resources, etc **Nourish** - Communities of practice need many different resources: ideas, mentors, processes, technology, equipment, money. Each is important, but foremost among these is learning and knowledge: knowing what techniques and processes work well, and learning from experience as people do the work. Pioneering leaders need and want to share their practices, experiences and dreams. **Illuminate** - It is difficult for anybody to see work based on a different paradigm. If people do notice such work, it is often characterized as inspiring deviations from the norm. It takes time and attention for people to see different approaches for what they are: examples of what the new world could be. Illumination is critical for building bridges that allow people to cross over from the old system to the new. # Entropy Both thermodynamics and Carl Jung agree that energy never goes away. It gets transformed. Entropy is a physics concept that refers to a system which becomes more and more disorganized. As captured by the 2nd law of thermodynamics, the total entropy in the universe will always increase. However, entropy can be reversed in local systems, because they can get energy from outside of the system. Living cells and bodies are an example of this. And so is the entire system of Earth, since it receives energy from the sun. When we think of human systems, we can see parallels in how human institutions decay and lose energy. Modernity as an entire worldview is also in decline. Instead of simply accepting this decline and collapse, we can begin to build systems which harness the energy lost by the old systems. Think of a series of connecting gears. As the old system decays and gives off energy, it drives the gears of an adjacent system. That system then drives the gears of the next adjacent system. We cannot create utopias out of whole cloth. We cannot reach paradise in one fell swoop. We need the utopian visions to guide us, but they are too far removed from the existing systems to benefit from the energy released from those systems. We need to build a series of interlocking systems which connect and build a bridge from the old system to the new system. # Places to Intervene in a System Another important reference for us is Donnella Meadows' famous essay on Leverage Points. (https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/) She came up with a ranked list of 12 places to intervene in a system. At the bottom fo this list is tweaking numbers on a spreadsheet. Her top 2 leverage points are: - The mindset or paradigm out of which the system - its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters - arises - The power to transcend paradigms David Bohm, a prominent physicist, wrote a book called On Dialogue. He said that we have to stop thinking of our situation as problems, and begin appreciating them as paradoxes. He describes our situation as a river that has been polluted at the source. We keep trying to fix the pollution, but when we don't address the thinking that created the pollution, we succeed only by adding to the pollution. He asks us to examine our thinking. Imaginal Seeds is an invitation to focus on the thinking that leads us astray. In an article on the problems with ESG, a writer compares our situation to being in quicksand. The first thing to do is to Stop. Any movement will only get us deeper. (https://www.responsible-investor.com/articles/ri-long-read-esg-s-relationship-to-sustainability-is-a-quicksand-problem?fbclid=IwAR1OULPMcUIa32QpSSPD_wd_App7wd7rZBNjGAANeSn49zAbrf6boFYg5CM#.X40bytUnWFU.facebook) # Journey to Soul Initiation The following ideas from Bill Plotkin argue for the importance of the imagination in our journey ahead. We want to weave a cocoon that transforms us from a consuming caterpillar to a pollinating butterfly. To do so, we must weave it out of myths and images. Just as a caterpillar must dissolve into Imaginal cells in order to undergo its metamorphosis, so must we invest in Imaginal seeds. Bill Plotkin: - "To meaningfully address our current cultural and environmental collapses, the most essential initiative is to reclaim, redesign, and revitalize practices for the journey of soul initiation." - if we don't change, we will commit ecocide - what is required is inscendence, not transcendence. This is a term coined by Thomas Berry. Transcendence often leads to spiritual bypass. - "there are no older or existing cultures with practices or worldviews that are unambiguously relevant to what we need to navigate our current planetary moment, none that are wholly adequate to enable us to face what we now must as a species." - "We must now collectively weave a cocoon for the metamorphosis of our own species." - We progress from Adolescents to Adults to Elders - He defines soul as our unique eco-niche. By this definition, almost everything has a soul, even mountains and rainbows. - Our eco-niche is communicated to us through our myths and images, via our mythopoetic identity. # Phase Shifts In physics, there is something called phase shifts, which refers to a sudden transformation, for instance when water shifts phase from solid to liquid to gas. Societies can go through similar phase shifts. In Bill Plotkin's Journey of the Soul, he suggests that if enough people experienced Soul Initiation and discovered their true individual niche, then the human species would be able to discover its ecological niche. In [[The Listening Society]], Hanzi Freinacht argues that if enough people became metamoderns, then society as a whole would become metamodern. Erica Chenoweth did a lot of research on peaceful social movements, and found that if 3.5% of the population were to be involved, there was a 99% chance that a revolution would happen. Imaginal Seeds is all about contributing to and being ready for a phase shift towards a regenerative civilisation. # Embodiment Related to the need to re-form our thinking is the need to create a more embodied culture. We follow Resmaa Menakem, reverend angel kyodo williams, and others, in calling for an embodied social justice. Because the history of injustice is inextricably tied to the exploitation of bodies, there can be no justice without embodiment. Every aspect of our problem is related to the colonisation of the body by the head. Capitalism and colonialism can be seen as systems that disregard the body, that view the body as a mere instrument to serve the needs of the mind. The word "capital" is derived from a Latin word meaning "head". Descartes' famous "I think, therefore I am", found in his book Discourse on Method (1637), coincided with the rise of capitalism. The beginning of the 1600s saw the birth of both the British East India Company (1600) and the Dutch East India Company (1602). The process of abstraction is itself a process of removing something from its context, the way Africans were removed from their homes to work as slaves in distant plantations. Many of our technological solutions, such as AI and blockchain, are processes of abstraction, and are immediately suspect. Bayo Akomolafe writes of "the dislocation and disenchantment from one’s own wisdoms, the effacement of the vexed past and the Euro-American appropriation of history". Things that scale up too quickly are also to be questioned, as evidence that context might be in the process of being ignored. As David Fleming wrote, "Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions; they require small-scale solutions within a large-scale framework." #elisa what about David Weinstock's work? Should we mention something about it? # Fractals adrienne maree browne feldenkrais - any part of a system can be the site of intervention, not just the injury site # Deep change Hospicing Modernity identifies 3 levels at which change can occur: methodogical, epistemology, and ontology. It uses the metaphor of the olive tree. The leaves are the methodological layer. The branches are the epistemological layer. And the trunk and roots are the ontological layer. ## Methodological Layer The methodological layer focuses on ways of doing. It changes an existing system to work more efficiently on its own terms. It focuses on maximizing growth and functionality. It assumes that our problems are due to the existing system failing to live up to its own promises, and attempts to come up with improvements that address that. But the overall goal remains unchanged: the production of more olives. As Vanessa Machado writes in Hospicing Modernity: > "Questions that are asked at this layer include: What is the problem? Who is affected? How can we fix it? How can I help? What changes have people already tried to make, and what lessons can be learned from those efforts? What strategies are effective? What outcomes are expected? What challenges are faced? How will it work? How to improve effectiveness? What knowledge/expertise/data is missing? How to harvest missing data? What policy is needed or not being implemented correctly? How does this compare to what happens in other contexts? What tools, incentives, and training are required for successful social change? What are best practices in this area? How do we support change makers to achieve the goals of progress, development, equity, and inclusion? How can social change be viewed as a distributed/interdependent process rather than a centralized/individualized effort?" ## Epistemological layer > "Whose bodies and voices are represented in decision-making? Who decides which direction is 'forward'? In whose name? For whose benefit? How come (i.e., historical/systemic forces)? How are dissenting voices included (or not)? Whose terms of dialogue or inclusion are in operation? What collective traumas are present? Why? Who has been historically and systematically wounded? Whose vulnerabilities are visible or invisible? What notions of authority, merit, credibility, normality, and entitlement are at work? What is being opposed and proposed as a replacement? How am I complicit in harm? How am I reading and being read? How can I enact ehtical solidarity? What information needs to be known in order to enact contextually and culturally appropriate solutions? What experiences and sensibilities would allow us to access this information? How do desires for mastery and individual heroism limit approaches to social change? How are redistribution, redress, and reparation pursued? ## Ontological layer > "How is the possibility of my understanding (knowing or sensing), or lack thereof, shaped and limited by my lived experience? What is this experience (of not knowing) teaching me about the likelihood of possibilities that I could not have imagined existed? How is my imagination restricted by modernity? What pedagogical frameworks might support a relationship to knowledge that is not limited to description (becoming aware of the problems) and then prescription (seeking out appropriate actions to solve it), and instead works toward holding and working with and through complexity and unpredictability? How might desires to 'fix' and 'solve' limit what global social change might be imagined as possible? What possibilities for global social change are enabled by a commitment not to 'fixing' but to unraveling what structures our ways of being, and what possibilities lie beyond what we can know? How do we shift the action-oriented tendencies that currently dominate in education and social change discourses away from fixed horizons of certainty, and toward engaging with what is viable yet unimaginable? Imaginal Seeds focuses on ontology, or changing our ways of being. This is the hardest level of change, but it is also the most necessary. Without changing our ways of being, we are doomed to replicate the same harmful hierarchies that got us into our current mess. # Coherence and Constraints The physicist David Bohm talked about the importance of coherence. Writing long before our "post-truth" era, he identified the breakdown of public discourse that we are stuck in. Whilst we believe in the importance of storytelling, we don't believe in "anything goes". We believe that for a society to act effectively, it must have coherence. One of the seminal essays on the importance of [[coherence]] was written by Jordan Hall in 2017. He pointed out that coherence is achieved through constraints. He used the example of a rowboat. A single person can learn to use an oar fairly effectively. But once we add a second oar, that person would be overwhelmed by the complexity of the system (the dynamic relationships between boat, water, oars, and person), so that we need to constrain the system by locking the oars in place. This allows the person to row effectively again. Now what if we add 10 rowers to the boat? There would be chaos, as they would not be rowing in sync. We would need to add another constraint, perhaps a head rower at the front who yells the timing for everyone to follow. The moral of the lesson is that constraints are important, and we have to choose our constraints intentionally and with care. The most important pair of constraints for Imaginal Seeds is ecosystem sustainability and social justice. This is very much the concept of planetary and social boundaries as described by Kate Raworth in her Dougnut Model (https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/). Physicist Tom Murphy concluded that modernity is incompatible with planetary limits, and came up with the following list of foundational principles for his Planetary Limits Academic Network (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621003327): 1. Humans are a part of nature, not apart from nature. 2. Non-renewable materials cannot be harvested indefinitely on a finite planet. 3. The ability of Earth’s ecosystems to assimilate pollution without consequences is finite. 4. Energy throughput is essential to all human activities, including the economy. 5. Technology is a tool for deploying, not creating energy. 6. Fossil fuel combustion is the primary cause of ongoing global climate change. 7. Exponential growth, whether of physical or economic form, must eventually cease. 8. Today’s choices can simultaneously create problems for and deprive resources from future generations. 9. Human behavior is consciously and unconsciously shaped by mental models of culture that, while mutable, impose barriers to change. 10. Apparent success for a few generations during a massive draw-down of finite resources says little about chances for long-term success. We take these as useful constraints to work with. For example, based on these principles, we don't see a shift to renewable energy as the solution to the climate crisis, for 2 reasons. There won't be enough materials to convert the whole planet to renewables at current consumption levels. And the conversion will mostly benefit those who are already in the Global North, the rich minority of the world. This is socially unacceptable. The beautiful thing about constraints is that once you put them in place, they enable a different dimension of freedom, just as locking the oars of a rowboat allow us to move the rowboat with much more freedom. Letting go of unrealistic expectations that more technology will get us out of this mess, we are free to explore strategies that have previously been neglected – strategies that change culture to one of lower consumption, for instance.